MAC WALKER'S BENGHAZI: The Complete Collection (20 page)

“That I have Mr. Walker. That I have. If you arrive back here tomorrow by 8:30 I can personally see you and your men onto the flight.”

Danton extended his hand to Mac, who shook it firmly in his own. Ella turned abruptly from Danton’s desk and began walking toward the door. Once outside they returned to the black SUV left to them by the ambassador. Ella took the wheel, indicating she was more familiar with the Benghazi streets than Mac. He offered no protest, silently taking his place in the passenger seat.

Halfway back to Ella’s office, Mac attempted to start a conversation.

“Look, that stuff about Dasha, I didn’t think---“

Ella cut Mac off, her voice abrupt, though her face again unreadable.

“Who you choose to sleep with Mr. Walker, however ill advised that choice might be, is no business of mine. I don’t care to hear of the details though, so if you don’t mind, please drop the subject.”

Mac Walker knew, among other things, survival, chaos, weapons, blood, pain, fear, but through all that learning, he would be the first to admit, he didn’t know shit about women. They were an ever changing complication that remained a seemingly unending mystery to him.

XXV.

Jack met Mac at the entrance to Ella’s office. The look on his face suggested trouble of some sort, making Mac worry over the safety of Minnick and Benny, who had been left at the safe house.

“What it is?”

Jack looked over at Ella and then motioned for Mac to follow him inside. Jack was on edge again, glancing back behind him as Ella closed the entrance door.

“I spoke with Minnick about twenty minutes ago. There has been double the traffic going into that compound. Lots of those big U.N. transport trucks. That’s not what’s got them spooked though – there were about ten guys walking outside the compound. A few of them were definitely armed, and at least one of them was taking pictures. This went on for about an hour, and then they jumped back into their vehicles and took off. Before they left though, a couple of them walked across the road and were looking right at the safe house and taking more pictures.

It was recon work Mac. A shitty, overly obvious Libyan version of it, but that’s what it was. Minnick and Benny think the same. Somebody is planning to move against that compound, and it seems like they suspect they’re being watched from the safe house. We need to pull Minnick and Benny the hell out of there like right now. I’ll go pick them up myself if I have to.”

Mac offered no disagreement. He had already intended to drive out and get Minnick and Benny already.

“We’ll both go Jack. Pick them up and bring them back here where we’ll wait out the night and then I got us a flight out of here first thing in the morning.”

Jack’s eyes widened slightly – he appeared hopeful for the first time in a long time.

“Danton check out ok? He can be trusted?”

Mac nodded.

“Yeah – I think so. He’s an odd one, but seems to know his way around this shithole well enough. He has a 9:00 set up for the four of us, take us to the Ivory Coast and then we catch an Air France flight back to the States. Figure we leave here tomorrow no later than 8:00 a.m.”

Jack offered Mac a genuine smile.

“Best fucking news I’ve heard since we got here.”

Ella walked up to Mac and Jack, her arms folded across her chest.

“So you two will be driving back out to your safe house then?”

Mac nodded.

“Yeah, gonna leave right now. Be back here within the hour, that is, if you don’t mind us staying here overnight?”

Ella gave Mac a slight smile and shrugged.

“That will be fine Mr. Walker. You and your men are welcome to stay with us tonight.”

After calling Minnick and Benny to let them know they were coming to get them, the drive out to the safe house took less than twenty minutes, due in great part to Jack’s penchant for pushing the Hummer to its limit at every opportunity. During one stretch of desert road where the massive SUV neared almost a hundred miles an hour, Jack turned to Mac and grinned widely.

“Drive it like I stole it man!”

Mac laughed, even as his knuckles turned white from his tightening grip on the dashboard.

“You did steal it Alabama.”

Soon Jack was driving the Hummer past the gated entrance of the safe house, both he and Mac already holding their handguns at the ready in case of any trouble. Before they reached the entrance steps, both Minnick and Benny were outside, both carrying sniper rifles on their backs, and several boxes of ammunition stuffed into their pockets.

Benny clapped Mac’s shoulder as he moved quickly past him toward the Hummer.

“Glad to see you man. Things getting’ weird around here Mac. Time to go, time to go!”

Mac’s phone began vibrating in his coat pocket. The number indicated it was Stephen Mardian.

“Hello, Mr. Walker. I have further instructions for you.”

Mac noted the strain in Mardian’s voice. Something was wrong.

“Are you there Mr. Walker?”

“I’m here Mardian – what are the instructions?”

Mardian paused as Mac detected the sound of a brief scuffle coming over the phone. Someone was there with Mardian.

“Mr. Walker, you know the property you have been conducting surveillance on?”

“Yeah.”

The strain in Mardian’s voice was becoming even more pronounced as he spoke.

“There is a man due to arrive tomorrow afternoon at that location. He is the American ambassador to Libya. We have confirmed he is the one responsible for the weapons transfers in Benghazi. Potentially thousands of weapons Mr. Walker. He has become an extremely dangerous and unpredictable man, who appears to now be working with, and aiding, the anti-American insurgents throughout the region. His actions will cost many lives Mr. Walker, and we are now asking you to reduce that potential number. We need you to save lives Mr. Walker. Do you understand?”

Mac recalled the ambassador telling him he would be receiving a phone call just like the one Mardian was now conducting.

“You’re saying you want us to kill a United States ambassador? Are you out of your fucking mind Mardian? We didn’t sign up for this shit. No way.”

Mac heard more indications of a struggle, and then the unmistakable sound of a gun firing.

“Hello again Mr. Walker.”

It was Dasha Al Marri. Mac remained silent.

“Mr. Walker, don’t be rude. And don’t be one who breaks a deal. We do have a deal Mr. Walker – you took my money, remember?”

Mac could feel his jaw clenching as his hand threatened to squeeze his phone into oblivion.

“Where’s Tilley?”

Dasha’s voice, with its hint of an English accent, betrayed no fear over Mac’s potential fury against her.

“Mr. Tilley became an unreasonable liability to us Mr. Walker. What is it you Americans are so fond of saying – a pain in the ass. So, that liability was remedied. Permanently.”

Mac felt gut punched at the news of Tilley’s death.

“I’m not doing the assignment Dasha. You and whoever you are working with can go fuck yourselves. And when I get back home, you better not be there, because I’m coming for you, do you understand? You, Nigel, whoever else is behind this – I will kill every one of you myself.”

Dasha laughed, the sound making Mac’s lip curl into a snarl.

“Oh Mr. Walker – if only your cock were as big as your threats, I might entertain the possibility of keeping you around for entertainment. As it is, I am already entertained enough. You either complete the assignment as agreed, or someone else will and you and your men, will not be allowed to live. Now before you answer, I would suggest you consider my words carefully Mr. Walker, for unlike you, I have the means to see it done. I will kill every one of your men one by one, and allow you to live just long enough to know you were responsible for each of those deaths. So grow up Mr. Walker, and do what you’re told. Kill the ambassador, and save your men.”

Mac ended the call, the adrenalin coursing through his body, making it difficult for him to think clearly. Benny, sensing how enraged the call had made Mac, was the first to question who it was.

“Something wrong with Tilley, Mac?”

Mac took a slow deep breath and looked back at Benny as he nodded his head slowly.

“Yeah – he’s dead. Pretty sure Dasha had him killed. Think Mardian’s dead too.”

Minnick’s face expressed confusion.

“Wait – I just heard you talking to Mardian. How can he be dead?”

Mac closed his eyes briefly, still working on calming himself down to ensure he was thinking clearly.

“I was. Heard a gunshot, and then he wasn’t talking no more. It was Dasha.”

Mac shared the details of Dasha’s threats, as well as the information he had acquired from both the ambassador and Louis Danton. When he finished, Benny, Jack, and Minnick stood silently staring back at Mac. Benny looked particularly shocked at what Mac told him.

“My god Mac, if these people think they can kill someone like Stephen Mardian…I mean c’mon man, that guy is connected! Right? Talking about a man who hangs with Senators, who gets invited to dinners at the fucking White House. This woman, this Dasha Al Marri, she’s got enough power to kill off someone like Mardian? How the hell is something like that…”

Benny’s words trailed off as he continued to stare at Mac, looking for some semblance of sanity in their world gone mad. Jack’s voice ripped through the silence left by Benny, his tone both angry and fearful.

“I told you! Told you this was all wrong. We don’t do work for the fucking United Nations, or some Middle East bitch! This government is all fucked up. Been that way for years now. We all knew it, but we didn’t want to admit it, right? We were getting paid good, living large, all that shit. Well now what? They ain’t gonna let us just waltz on out of here. Not with what we know. They’re coming for us, and it’s gonna be soon. Fucking Benghazi Mac! I told you dammit!”

Despite Jack’s understandable concern, Mac found himself more relaxed than he had been just moments before. He looked back at his men and offered a small, knowing smile, his eyes crackling with the energy of a man ready, and more important, willing, to go into battle.

“Let them threaten us. Fact is, we just might be the four baddest motherfuckers walking this earth today, am I right? They want to come after us Jack? Fine, let them get a taste of what we do. Let them know the hell we can bring.”

XVI.

The hours waiting in Ella’s building passed slowly. Though Mac and his men attempted to rest in shifts, none of them were able to fall asleep. They all sensed something would be coming their way. As Jack had said earlier, there was simply no chance they would be allowed to just waltz out of Benghazi knowing what they did. Mac didn’t fear a fight, though he did fear putting Ella and her men in greater danger than they already faced on a day to day basis.

“We can leave here Ella – you don’t have to let us stay. I’ve put you in a tough position here and I don’t want you to get hurt because of it.”

Ella sat on a small cot that she used for a bed in one of the smaller rooms of the building. The room had no windows, just a door, the cot, and a single lamp. She raised her face upward slightly as she sat on the cot looking back at Mac.

“You think your purpose here and mine are so different Mr. Walker? We have been tracing the transport of weapons for some time, and like your Mr. Tilley, and Louis Danton, find the access to radioactive devices something we cannot simply allow to go unchecked. My life and those of my men have been in increasing danger since we arrived here. It is what I do Mr. Walker – much the same as what you do. Though I am happy to know, that I am afforded the protection of my own government, while you and your men appear to be endangered by yours.”

Mac found himself nodding in agreement to Ella’s words. Yes, the American government was in a complete shambles these days. An incoherent mess of a foreign policy that was putting everyone in danger, from citizens to soldiers, they were all suffering under years of anti-Americanism both at home and abroad.

“If you get out of Libya Mr. Walker, what then?”

Mac had been considering that very question for the last several hours. What then indeed. With both Tilley and Mardian likely gone, Mac and his team had few contacts within the government to turn to, certainly none who they could trust.

“Not sure – we’ll have to lay low. Watch our back, and see what happens.”

Ella’s face lost its unreadable mask, allowing Mac to sense her sadness at the future that awaited him.

“Not much of a life Mr. Walker, always wondering if and when someone comes for you. It will be as if you are still on an assignment, though the enemy is your own government.”

Mac leaned against the wall opposite Ella’s cot and took a deep breath.

“Yeah, though I know we won’t be the first people dealing with that scenario. Maybe things will change. A new election, a new way of looking at the world. Who knows…”